


Vld snzfics

by Artesima_darkstar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 18+ characters, Aged-Up Character(s), Aged-Up Voltron Paladins, Allergies, Galaxy Garrison, Galaxy garrison goes up through college, M/M, Sick Character, Sick Hunk (Voltron), Sick Keith (Voltron), Sick Lance (Voltron), Sick Pidge | Katie Holt, Sick Shiro (Voltron), Sickfic, broganes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:35:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 18,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27065740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artesima_darkstar/pseuds/Artesima_darkstar
Summary: Keith has an ear infection, Shiro calls him out
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron), Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Voltron Paladins & Voltron: Legendary Defender Team
Kudos: 22





	1. Sick Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has a cold and ear infection, Shiro makes sure he's okay

Keith tugs on his ear as Shiro droned on about the mission they had just gotten back from.  
"Keith, are you listening?" He snaps from the head of the table. Keith snaps to attention and meets Shiro's piercing gaze.  
"Yes, sir," he says, voice softened from the cold he had been fighting off for the past few days. It seemed to have settled comfortably in his head, leaving him congested and sneezy, and most recently with stopped up ears.  
Shiro's gaze softens.  
"Okay. I think that's enough for today. Everyone, get some rest." Chairs clatter as the other paladins get up and start to make their way to the common room. Shiro comes behind Keith and settles his hands on Keith's shoulders. Keith relaxes into Shiro's warm grip.  
"You did well. I know you aren't feeling well," Shiro says. Keith starts to ask how but Shiro cuts him off.  
"You get quieter when you're sick to hide your voice," he says. Of course Shiro would notice. Keith pinches his nose to stifle a couple of sneezes, not wanting to alert the others to his illness.  
"Hg'xt Hk'xt." His ears hurt and pop. Keith's hand goes up to pull on his ear again. Shiro shakes his hear fondly.  
"Bless you. You should go soak in the hot springs, itll make you feel better," Shiro says sympathetically. Keith nods and gets up. His vision goes a little fuzzy as he stands, but he makes his way down to the Altean hot springs.  
He relaxes into the steaming water with a towel behind his head. The steam was helping to ease his congestion, so much that he was almost constantly wiping his nose. His ears crackle when he swallows and it hurts right down to where his jaw connects to his head. He reaches up and rubs the bone behind his ear. It throbbed. Someone sinks into the pool beside him, statling him. He looked over at Shiro. He should have heard him come in. Shiro seemed to have come to the same conclusion.  
"You're ears are bothering you, aren't they?" He asks. Keith nods. It made his head spin. He pulls on his ear again. Shiro shakes his head.  
"I should have known. You always fuss at your ears when you have an ear infection, and you always get an ear infection when you have a cold." Keith goares at him, but it isn't very effective when his eyes are watering and he has to pull away to sneeze. He sneezes into his cupped hands, it was just him and Shiro in here anyways. Shiro flicks the back of his head.  
"Quit sneezing in you hands. That's probably how you got sick in the first place," he chastises. Keith mocks him, echoing his statement back to him. He reaches up to pull at his ears again.  
"Come on. Dry off and we'll get you some antibiotics before this turns into a full sinus infection," Shiro says standing up and wrapping a towel around his waist. He offers Keith a hand up. Keith takes it and pulls himself up slowly. Shiro hands him a towel and leads him with a hand on his back to the infirmary. Coran comes in not long after.  
"So number 4, number 1 says you haven't been feeling well. Let's take a look shall we," he says pulling out one of those fever testing patches and attaches it to Keith's forehead before grabbing one of the instruments doctors used to look in your ears. He hums and chatters as he looks in Keith's ears, down his throat up his nose. The checks the patch.  
"Well number 4, I would say you've definitely got an ear infection. Your body temperature is within the normal range for a human and you don't seem to have a sinus infection. I could give you an antibiotic, but according to my readings, normally adults don't need any medicine, otherwise rest and fluids," he says. Keith drops his head in his hands once Coran leaves. Shiro walks off and eventually comes backs with a couple water pouches. He hands them over to Keith who stabs a straw into one of them and drinks it quickly.  
"Thanks Shiro," he says tugging on his ear. Shiro shakes his head fondly. Some things would never change.  
"Get some rest," he says messing up Keith's hair as he walks past.


	2. Sick Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith comes home from a mission and finds out Shiro hasn't been feeling very well.

My aesthetic tbh: crumpled tissues and a bag of cough drops sitting on a nightstand next to a thermometer and an empty mug of tea

Keith isn't surprised when he makes it back from his week long mission that Shiro's desk in their dorm was littered with used, crumpled tissues and a bag of the Hall's mentolated coughdrops with empty wrappers covering his desk. Keith rolls his eyes and walks over to clear the desk off. The computer was still up and blinking a complete paper across it. The calendar hanging on the wall had the day marked with two notes.  
♡Keith comes home♡  
And  
■course paper due■  
Well that explained where his sick boyfriend was. 

After changing out of his sweaty uniform, Keith moves to take a shower. There was an open jar of Vicks vaporub on the counter, perminating the bathroom with a strong mentol smell. Keith couldn't help but wonder how long Shiro had been sick for. Was he sick before Keith left? Had he missed it? 

Shiro gets back to the dorm while Keith is in the shower. He directs a husky cough into his fist as he notes Keith's bag on the floor and his boots tangled by his bed. Shiro's so tired. The kind of tired that sinks deep in your bones. The kind of tired that can't be cured by a good night of sleep. He collapses into his desk chair and reaches for the half empty box of tissues. He plucks a couple out and blows his stuffy nose. The shower cuts off. Keith comes out with a towel wrapped around his waist and hair dripping onto his shoulder. He looked thinner. Was he thinner? Shiro knew it was irrational, it wasn't a long mission and it wasn't nearly as dangerous as some of the missions Shiro has been on.  
"How'd idt go?" Shiro asks, cringing at how stuffy and raspy his voice sounded. Keith notices too.  
"It was fine. When did you get sick?" He asks as he pulls on a paid of sweats. He comes over and puts a hand on Shiro's shoulder.  
"Umb day before you left," Shiro says before grabbing a couple of tissues and bringing them to his nose.  
"Hih'SCHIew...ah'SchIEW...'kishSHIIEiw, excuse mbe," he says blowing his nose. His sinuses twinge angrily at the abuse it had been subjected to. Keith could feel the power behind each sneeze as they bent Shiro forward. He rubs Shiro's shoulders firmly.  
"Bless you. It sounds like you've been having a rough time of it," Keith says as Shiro aims more raspy coughs into his fist. Keith uses his thumbs to massage the base of Shiro's neck. Shiro drops his head to his chest.  
"Nodt beend a great week," he admits. His brain was foggy and his body ached more than he wanted to admit. Colds had been rough on him since the accident that had ruined his sinuses. He sniffles a couple times before bringing his wad of tissues back up to his face.  
"Huh'KZZt'ShIEw......heh.....Hih'SCHIew...ah'SchIEW....ugh sorry," he says massaging his sinuses with his fingers.  
"Bless you. Come on. You need some rest," he says pulling Shiro up and leading him over to his bunk. Keith undoes his laces and pulls his boots off. He lays out some comfortable sleep clothes.  
"Go change. I'm gonna find a thermometer. You're too achy for this to just be a cold," Keith says leaving to go rifle through their medicine cabinet. He finds a thermometer and a couple of mostly used blister packs of decongestants. Keith shakes his head.  
"Come on, Shiro, you know my decongestants won't do anything for you," he calls into the other room. He just hears Shiro's congested cough and him blowing his nose. Keith sighs and grabs the stronger decongestants and a cough suppressant , a glass of water, and the thermometer. He brings them all out and crouches down in front of Shiro who is still trying to blow his nose. Keith presses his hands to the side of his face and rubs his thumbs along the side of his nose. He could feel the heat and swelling under his thumbs, but only for a moment before Shiro is pulling away and turning into his elbow.  
"Huh'KZZt'ShIEw....Hih'dZZtShiew.....huh...Hih'KZZt'ShIEw sorry," Shiro says tiredly. Keith kisses his boyfriend's warm cheek.  
"Don't apologize and bless you," Keith says before putting the thermometer in Shiro's ear. It only takes a few seconds before it's beeping. Keith looks at it for a second with a frown. 99.9. Not terrible, but definitely a fever. He sees Shiro shiver and he wraps his arms around himself. Keith grabs a blanket off his bed and wraps it around his boyfriend. Shiro grabs it in the front and holds onto it with a white knuckled grip. Keith runs a hand through his hair. He pours out a dose of cough medicine first, figuring that the cough must be really tiring Shiro out, based on how low and raspy they are. He hands over the medicine cup and Shiro throws it back like a shot without any argument. Then Keith pops out a dose of sudafed. He hands the gels over to Shiro with the cup of water. He takes that too.  
"You're feeling really crappy aren't you?" Keith asks, massaging Shiro's head. He nods before tiredly pulling his arm up to his face.  
"Huh'GZZN'tshIEw....nGXZZt'shIEw...huh...huh KZZXt'shIEw," Shiro groans afterwards. Even his sneezes sounded tired.  
"Bless you. I'm going to get you some tea, then we'll set up a movie and I'll make up for not being here all week," be promises going to get some tea ready.  
When he comes back, Shiro is nearly asleep. Keith chuckles and sets the tea in the table before climbing into bed behind Shiro and pulling the larger man back against him. Shiro takes a deep breath and Keith thinks he's about to speak. Instead, his hands come up to cup his face.  
"Hih'dZZtSh...hhh...tz'GGSH'shiew...GGsh'IEw," he snuffles thickly, decongestant starting to thin some of the mucus in his head.  
"Bless you. We can save the tea for later," Keith says, situating they so Shiro was still propped up but comfortable enough to sleep, and within ten minutes, Shiro's loud snoring filled the room.


	3. Sick Keith /Sick Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith goes on a mission that ends up with him being caught and toryted by the Galra, Shiro loses his ever loving mind.

"Keith, you have a squad coming You're way, hide somewhere. Do. Not. Engage," Shiro says through their helmets. Keith nods, forgetting that Shiro can't see him.   
"Rodger," he says, throat burning at the use. He resists the urge to cough and pulls himself into the vent a few paces away. He had just fit the grill back over the opening when the squadron marches past, armour clinking against itself. He holds his breath as they pass and once they're far enough away, he takes a deep breath, which turns out to be a bad idea. His nose immediately starts to burn with the need to sneeze just as Shiro is telling him to stay put because another few soldiers are coming around the corner. Keith pinches his nose shut and tries to hold his breath even as it starts to catch.   
"Hhh....hhh....uhhhh...," he pinches his nose tighter, but it didn't do him any good.   
"Hih'DNXt...GNxT KG'xT...KnG'Xt. He releases his breath slowly and listens for any sound that he had been heard. Everything was quiet, but the tickle wasn't gone.   
"Huh'KZZt Dt'GGx...KG'xT." The last run of stifles had left his head throbbing and his throat sore and swollen. He hears some talking outside of the vent and holds his breath hoping not to be discovered.   
The grill is ripped off the vent and a long, thick, purple arm is grabbing him by the throat. Keith struggles weakly against his grip as he fight for air. The Galra soldier shakes him before another one barks an arder and the pressure around his neck is gone and hes dropped to the floor with a hand in the collar of his uniform. Keith coughs hard at the trauma to his already abused throat and can hear Shiro shouting at him through the headset before the Galra were ripping off his helmet and taking his weapons.   
"You, go. If there's one, there's more," the biggest Galra growls. One of the smaller soldiers rushes off to search for his friends. Keith's legs buckle under him as the Galra start to drag him forward, muscles to fatigued to keep him up. One of them knocks him upside the head and stars scramble across his field of view before he's being dragged across the floor. He loses consciousness at some point. When he comes to, he's in a cold, damp, cement cell. He's shivering violently. Keith wraps his arms around himself to try and chase away the chills, but he keeps trembling. It doesn't take long before he starts coughing. By the time he stops, his throat is so swollen and painful even breathing hurt. He feels some bruising on his chest and neck from their rough treatment. He ruined the mission. Hopefully the others had just left without him. If they were smart, they would leave him there to rot. He hears stomping down the row of cells and tries to force himself to stand. He'll meet his captors standing and defiant, noe shivering on the floor like a coward. His legs shook under his weight and he supported himself against the wall as the large Galra came into view. It was someone new.   
He doesn't say anything, just unlocks the door and another, smaller Galra comes in and grabs him by the back of the neck, shoving him roughly forward. He collapses to his knees with the pressure, fatigue and illness draining all of his strength, but he still looks up defiantly when he's kneeling in front of him. The Galra takes his chin and forces his head up until he's looking into the Galra's face. Keith knew he was being examined. He growls and spits in the face of his captor. The Galra punches him across the face before shoving him back. He had seen whatever he was sent to see. Keith sags against the wall as soon as the soldiers are out of sight. His nose was bleeding and running profusely.   
"HhhggXxxntt...kkssgGGnxt...nnngGGNxxt" the painful stifles were wetter and looser than earlier as his cold continues to sink its claws into him. When he drops his hand, it's covered in blood from his nose. He coughs wetly and hopes once again that his friends had left without him. He wasn't worth the resources it would take to save him. He slumps back against the wall, shivering. His head felt too hot and swollen, but the rest of him was painfully cold. He closes his eyes in hope of being able to sleep. And sleep did come, but it was restless and brief. He coughs wetly as he wakes up again. He clutches his head as it throbs. He was sure his cheek was bruising from the punch. He cups his hands around his nose.   
"Hih...hhgggxxxt....gggnnXxxt...kkkggggXxxt," he groans when his hands come away slick. He would give anything for a tissue at this point as he wipes his hands on his uniform. He shivers again and leans his head back against the wall. When the soldiers come again, he doesn't get up to meet them, too exhausted. This time they drag him out of the cell and down the hall to large room. The throw him onto the floor and the interrogation begins.  
"Who are the other paladins of Voltron?" He growls. Keith lifts his head to meet the eyes of the much larger Galra. He keeps his silence. A nod. A smaller Galra kicks him hard in the side, leaving him curling in on himself in pain. He groans and coughs. That hurt a lot worse now. The Galra look at each other.   
"Puny human sickly. No paladin of Voltron this weak," they laugh. Keith drops his head to hide his blush. The Galra laugh again. Keith feels the need to sneeze blossom in his nose and he fights hard to hold it back, eyes blooming with tears.   
"Ddh'tzZZz...GggkZZ'XT." The sneezed led to another round of mocking from his enemies. 

The interrogation lasted for several hours, each unanswered question was met with another beating, and each beating led to another round of coughing or sneezing. By the time he was thrown back in his cell, his whole body hurt and he just wanted to curl up and sleep. His friends weren't coming. He was going to die here. He coughs roughly. It tears through him, shaking his aching body. He wasn't hungry, and he knew that was a problem because it had been at least a couple of days. He closes his eyes and hopes that when he wakes up this will have all been a bad dream. 

Keith is dragged unceremoniously from his sleep on the fifth day to the sound of fighting. He expects another beating or integration, what he doesn't expect is to hear Shiro and Pidge hollering for him and blasting going off down the hall. He drags his aching body over to the cell doors and banging on them, too weak to do much more. He rattles the grate some more and then hears Pidge calling to Shiro.   
"Shiro, I found him, but he doesn't look good. We need to hurry," she calls. He hears the thud of a body and then Shiro appears in front of the door. He rips it off with his metal arm and reaches down to pick Keith up. Keith just kept his eyes on Shiro.   
"Did't thingk you were combing," he says. His throat throbbed with just those five words, and they were so marred by congestion he wasn't sure Shiro would be able to hear him. Shiro cradles Keith to his chest and they start off to the green lion.   
"We got him. Back to the lions," he says. The others must agree because Shiro and Pidge start off at a run. The jarring run sent waves of pain through Keith's body. He whimpers and buries his face in Shiro's chest.   
"Hih'tshhh huh'ttshhh eh'kksshhh," he makes another pained sound.  
"It's okay. You're safe. We're getting you out of here," Shiro says as they board the green lion. Pidge takes a seat at the console, face pinched with worry and pushes Green to go as fast as possible back to the castle. 

When they land, Keith had gone unconscious again. Shiro picks him up and rushes him to the pods. The entire team is standing around them, watching Keith's unconscious form floating in the blue tube.   
"He didn't think we were coming from him," Shiro says pressing a hand to the glass. Hunk steps up beside him and puts a hand on Shiro's shoulder.   
"He was delusional. And did find him," he assures Shiro. Shiro shakes his head.   
"We were almost too late. He looked so broken on the floor of that cell," he says, voice wavering in the middle. Lance steps up on Hunk's other side.   
"It's Keith, man. He'll come back from this." Even Lance sounded worried. Pidge stepped up beside Shiro and covers his hand with her own much smaller hand.  
"You did it, Shiro. You got him back. Now you're allowed to rest," she says. She starts to lead him away. He followed on autopilot. It had been six days since he slept for more than a couple hours, every waking second consumed with trying to find Keith. 

The next morning, they all met in the infirmary to help Keith out of the pods. Shiro was looking a little worse for wear, eyes red, skin slightly pale, and nose pink and runny. When the pod opens, he's the one that steps up to catch him. Keith falls out coughing painfully into a fist. Shiro wraps an arm around his shoulders and helps him up the stairs to the common room. He settles Keith on the couch and starts to go try and fix thing, but Pidge gives him a look and makes him sit down beside Keith.   
"You're sick too. It's our turn to take care of you," she says. Lance brings them both a couple of blankets and wraps them up. Hunk came through with hot drinks and food, and Pidge dimmed the lights enough to not hurt the two sick paladins heads.   
"You came for me," Keith rasps, leaning against Shiro. Shiro coughs into his elbow for a few seconds before answering.   
"I would never leave you," he assures Keith, sniffling.   
"And then I got you sick?" Keith asks, pressing a hand to Shiro's over warm cheek. Shiro nods.   
"Next time you're sick, just tell me. Don't go on a mission," Shiro tells him wrapping an arm around Keith's shivering form. 

When the others came to check on them, they found Keith and Shiro asleep against each other, snoring quietly. Hunk, Lance, and Pidge exchange a look, take a picture and creep out of the room without waking the two sleeping boys.


	4. Sick Keith/ hurt Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Shiro were in a car wreck, Shiro got hurt, Keith feels guilty.

Shiro sits up painfully in bed when someone bangs on his bed. His ribs throb against the movement and he sucks in a control breath, wincing. He pushes himself up gingerly and makes his way to the door. He braces himself on the wall to catch his breath before opening the door. 

He wasn't surprised at all when he saw Keith standing outside the door. Ever since his accident, Keith had barely left his side. He suspected it was guilt because Keith was the one who was driving the car when they got in the accident. Keith looked worse than he had the day before. Shiro had known Keith was coming down with a cold for the past week, but Keith was so wrapped up in guilt that he either didn't notice or didn't care that he was getting sick. When Shiro sent him home the day before, he was sniffly and sounded like he was starting to really get sick. Now he looked terrible. He was paler than normal with dark bruises under his eyes, and his nose was flushed red around the edges like he had been rubbing it for quite some time.   
"Damn it, I shouldn't have gotten you up," Keith says when he sees Shiro leaning against the wall, pale with pain. He wraps an arm around Shiro's shoulders and helps him back to his bed. As soon as Shiro is settled, Keith is turning away and pinching his nose shut.   
"Ndt...nnt'ggxsh...ng'kXt..hsh'kXxSh," Keith groans as the stifles hurt his head and leave his nose stuffed up.   
"Bless you. You sound sick," Shiro says from his spot on the bed. Keith shakes his head vehemently even as it makes his head spin.   
"I'mb finde, jusdt somethigg in the air," he says sniffling. Shiro frowns and reaches a hand out to brush away Keith's bangs.   
"You've got a fever," he says. He shifts and it leaves him groaning in pain. Keith gets up and grabs the bandages off the bedside table. Keith helps Shiro get his shirt off and starts to unwrap the bandages from the day before. Keith can't help the guilt that stabs at his heart as he sees the dark purple bruising across Shiro's ribs. The swelling was still visible and a couple of his lacerations are bleeding again. Before Keith can start cleaning and rebandaging Shiro's side, he has to turn aside to sneeze again.   
"HGg'shXxt...ndt'gnXxt...huh...hih'nGgt," Keith coughs painfully into his arms before turning back to Shiro, who has his arms crossed across his sore, bruised chest.   
"Bless you. You're sick," he says.   
"Shiro, I'mb finde. I would'dnt be here if I was sick, you can'dt get sick right ndow, " he says before coughing again. When his hand goes up to stifle another set of sneezes, Shiro's hand intercepts him.   
"Just let them out before you hurt yourself," he says. Keith panics as his breath goes unsteady and he's forced to duck onto his shoulder to avoid sneezing on Shiro.   
"AiIsh'shhiew...Iihhh'kshIIew...Guhh'IShhIiew, dambn it, sorry Shiro, did I get you?" Keith asks in a panic. He doesn't even seem to notices the damp spot on his Shiro or that his nose was running terribly. Shiro reaches over to grab the tissue box beside his bed, wincing and coughing as it pulls on his ribs. He hands several to Keith. Keith brings them to his mouth thankfully.   
"AIish'iIew...iihh'kIIshIew...ehh'Eeshishh." He blows his nose in the tissues. It felt wonderful to have some of the congestion out of his head. He sighs thankfully. He looks sheepishly at Shiro.   
"Sorry, I'll do your bandages and thend I'll leave so I dond't get you sick," Keith says ducking his head. Shiro shakes his head.   
"No way, you're staying right here with me where I can keep an eye on you," he says taking Keith's hand in his own and kissing it.   
"You've gotta quit punishing yourself for this. I'm going to be just fine," he says coughing a little again. That snaps Keith out of his guilt induced fog and grabs the wrap. He starts to wrap Shiro's chest even as he groans at the pull and pressure on his sore chest.   
"Dond't worry, I'mb albmost donde," Keith assures him as he clips the bandage in place. Keith coughs roughly into his tissues a few times before going to refill Shiro's water glass. He hands it over with his pain medicine. Shiro takes them without complaint.   
"In the kitchen, there's some of the cold medicine you like, take it," he says. Keith screws up his face, but it's ruined when he has to duck into his elbow to sneeze.   
"Bless you," Shiro says as Keith goes to take his medicine. Shiro hated that he was stuck in bed and couldn't force Keith into bed while Shiro fussed over him, but he would make sure Keith took care of himself. After Keith takes the medicine, he starts like he's going to leave but Shiro calls out to him.   
"Keith, come lay with me," he says. Keith stops and turns around. Shiro could tell he wants to, but can't quite let himself.   
"Please, I get so bored here all day," he says. That seems to be enough to get Keith to come over. He gets into bed beside Shiro and wraps an arm around him. They both relax substantially being together again. This was the first time they had been this close since the wreck. Keith coughs. Then he ducks into his elbow with a trio of sneezes.   
"Huh ksshh'hIiEw...gnt'ShIieww...nGXt'shIiEw" the sneezes jostled Shiro and Keith hit his ribs with an arm during the fit leaving Shiro clutching at his side.   
"Damn," he gasps, eyes filling with pain induced tears. Keith pales and jumps up away from Shiro.   
"I'mb so sorry. I didn't mbeand to," he says frantically, causing himself to go into another coughing spell. The pain starts to fade from Shiro's side other than just the constant dull throbbing.   
"It's okay, Keith. It was an accident. Don't get yourself worked up, come on back to bed," Shiro says like he's talking to a spooked animal. Keith moves very carefully as he gets back in bed with Shiro.   
"I'mb so sorry," he says again. They both knew it wasn't just for the arm to the side.   
"I forgive you," Shiro says kissing Keith softly. Keith glares at him.   
"You're going to get sick now, and it's going to suck," Keith says. Shiro kisses him again.   
"Worth it." Keith sneezes and wraps an arm around Shiro, kissing his forehead.


	5. Sick Shiro caretaker Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is sick and Lance doesn't want him suffering alone

Shiro woke up with his throat sore and his head pounding. He winces as the lights come on and assault his eyes. He coughs and is pretty sure he swallowed glass at some point. He pushes himself up and takes a moment to get himself together. When he feels sturdy enough to stand, he presses his hand against the wall to steady himself. He coughs again as he pulls on a clean shirt before making his way into the kitchen. He knew that he needs to tell the rest of his team so that they can take the proper precautions to avoid having the whole team go down with whatever cold from hell was brewing in his chest and sinuses. He makes sure to keep his stoic bearing as he walks into the kitchen, but as soon as everyone looks up, he knows he must look as bad as he feels.   
"You okay, Shiro? You look a little....peaky," Hunk says passing over a plate of food goo. Shiro sits down and brings his arm up to cough into his elbow, away from everyone.   
"Excuse mbe. I think I've got a cold, so I'm gonna be out of training for a while," he says before pausing to direct a powerful sneeze into his elbow.   
"HkG'gSH'uu...hGk'tzz'Gx...excuse mbe, again. And please, take care of yourselves, we don't need this getting around," Shiro says getting up from his seat. His vision goes blurry for a few seconds and he feels a warm hand on his shoulder. When he looks up, Lance is standing beside him with a worried look on his face. Shiro offers him a tired smile.   
"Bless you, Shiro," Lance says. The others offer various well wishes as Shiro leaving the kitchen. He doesn't even notice Lance is still walking with him until he gets to his room. Then Lance clears his throat. Shiro turns around and rubs at his nose with a fist.   
"Shiro you can't just hole up. Let me help," he says with his trademark cocky smile. Shiro puts a hand up and turns his back to Lance.   
"Hih'dZZtSh hhh...Hih'GzZtSh. Excuse mbe. Lance I'm doing a lot of that right now, and I'm sure I'm very contagious. I don't want you to get sick," Shiro insists. He presses his hand to the scanner that lets him in his room. Lance follows him in despite Shiro's warning. Shiro drops down on his bed with an exhausted sigh that causes him to cough. He looks up when he feels Lance thumping him on the back. When the coughing dies down, Lance goes to the bathroom and brings back a cup of water. He offers it to Shiro who takes it gratefully.   
"Thank you, Lance but you really need to go before you catch this," Shiro insists. Lance rolls his eyes.   
"Come on Shiro, just let me help. You don't even have any tissues in here," Lance says. Shiro coughs again.   
"If I let you get me some medicine and tissues will you stay away? " he asks. Lance looks a little hurt but nods. He walks out the door amd is gone for several minutes. Shiro sneezes several times in quick succession and it leaves his head spinning and his nose congested.   
"Bless you, Hunk told me to bring you some of this. He says it's pretty similar to chicken soup, and Keith said you would want these extra blankets for when the fever kicks up," Lance says as he pops a couple of pills out of their package. And gets fresh water. He hands both to Shiro who takes them without complaint. The pills hurt his throat and make him cough. Lance rubs his back through the fit and hands him a tissue when it triggers another couple of sneezes.   
"Bless you. I'll leave now, but I'll be back in a few hours with your next dose," Lance says. He turns around and starts out of the door.   
"Hey, Lance," Shiro says. Lance turns around.   
"Yeah?"   
"Thank you," Shiro says with a weak smile.   
"Anytime, man."


	6. Sick Shiro vs Garrison exams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is sick in the middle of exams. Keith tries to help him get through

Shiro has one arm propping his head up while the other is scribbling notes for his test the next day. He had been so swamped with exams, he was surprised he even had a chance to sleep the past week. He had spent all his free time preparing. Keith had come over once or twice to study with him, but had to leave to get his own work done. Shiro presses a fist to his mouth to stifle the cough that bubbles up. Keith knocks on his door. He had told Shiro he was coming over after his classes to make sure he was still alive and hadn't turned into a blob of caffeine and stress.   
"Idt's opend," he calls, voice deeply congested. He sniffles thickly a few times as the door opens. Keith raises an eyebrow at him, coming over and rubbing his shoulders.   
"That sounds bad," he says as the coughing starts up again. Shiro shrugs.   
"Doesnd't feel too great either," he says rubbing at his nose. He turns into his elbow a few seconds after.   
"Huh'KZZt'ShIEw Hih'dZZtSh ugh," Shiro groans as the sneezes rip through him.   
Keith had been able to feel the force behind each sneeze as it tore through his boyfriend. He reaches over and grabs some tissues, passing them to Shiro.   
"Bless you. Not feeling good?" He guesses. He was well aware of Shiro's notorious finals flu. Shiro always says it's the worst cold he ever gets.   
"Yeah," he pauses to cough, "nodt greadt sindce Mondday," he says, before tenting the tissues over his nose.   
"Hih'SCHIew...ah'SchIEW...'kishSHIIEiw." Shiro groans and balls the tissue in his hand, dropping it as he went back to writing. Keith sighs.   
"Bless you, I'm gonna make you some tea, and don't even bother saying you don't need it. I know how sore your throat gets," he says kissing Shiro's forehead. He didn't feel too warm.   
Keith goes into the kitchen and sets the kettle on to boil. He goes searching through the cabinets for a pack of tea. He finds some peppermint and figures that'll be good for Shiro's congestion. The tea kettle whistles and Keith grabs a mug off the counter. He puts the tea bag in and adds a generous amount of honey and lemon before pouring in the steaming water. He brings it over and sets it beside Shiro's work station.   
"Thankg you, Keith," Shiro says, looking up at him with tired eyes. Keith nods.   
"Drink your tea and get some more studying done, then we'll go to bed so you'll be well rested for your exam tomorrow," Keith says sitting down beside Shiro. The steam from the tea left a minty smell permeating the appartment. Shiro reaches for the tea and takes a couple sips, sighing deeply.  
"Huh....Huh'KZZt'ShIEw iiihhhh'hhh...Hih'SCHIew...ah'SchIEW ugh. Excuse mbe," Shiro says sniffling wetly. Keith hands him several tissues so he can blow his nose.   
"Bless you. Peppermint's really clearing you out eh," Keith says with a smile. Shiro blows his nose wetly in the tissues. He couldn't help but be relieved as some of the sinus pressure drains. Keith helps Shiro study for another hour or so, passing him tissues and refreshing his tea every so often. Once Shiro makes it through all the content, he looks ready to drop. Keith pulls him up.   
"Alright big guy, let's get you to bed," Keith says leading Shiro over to the bed. He flicks on the heating mat that Shiro kept under his sheets for when his shoulder acts up. They settle into bed, Keith rubbing Shiro's chest as he coughs slightly from the shifting congestion. 

Around two the next morning, Shiro wakes up with the burning need to sneeze. He's so congested that when he tries to sniffle it just makes a congested bubbling sound. He coughs a few times before hes turning into his elbow as the need to sneeze clouds his mind. Keith sits up sleepily.   
"You okay?" He asks, putting a hand on Shiro's back. Shiro's back expands against his sleep shirt as his lungs fill in preperation for the explosive sneezes.   
"Ihhh'hhh...Eh'TZZshh'IEw Hih'dZZtSh huh'GZdTShIIEw," his hands are slick with spray and his nose is somehow both congested and running.  
"Bless you," Keith says. He was concerned at how strong the sneezes were, imagining they must have taken a lot out of his sick boyfriend. Shiro waves him off, he wasn't done.   
"Ihhhh'hhhh...Huh'KZZt'ShIEw Heh'GZZTshhh...hih'TZZsghh...huh'GSHhhh," the last three were wet and spraying, leaving him in desperate need of a tissue. Keith reaches across him to grab several, handing them over.   
"Bless you. Are you alright? That was intense," he says. Shiro blows his nose and coughs wetly a few times. Keith frowns and presses a hand to his boyfriend's forehead, then both cheek, and finally rests on his neck.   
"You've got a fever, Shiro," he says getting up. Shiro grabs his shirt.   
"I'm just getting you some medicine, I'll be right back," he promises kissing his head.   
He finds some nyquil in the bathroom. He pops a couple out of the blister pack and brings it back with a glass of water. He hands both to Shiro, who takes them without protest. 

Shiro wakes up sick and groggy the next morning in time for his lab. Keith was already waiting for him, with a box of tissues, mug of tea, and nondrowsey cold medicine. Shiro takes them all gratefully.   
"Thangk you. You tagke such good care of mbe," he says as Keith hands him his bag. He has stuck several travel packs of tissues in it so Shiro wouldn't have to worry about running out.  
"Good luck on your test," Keith says kissing him softly. Shiro gives him a look.   
"Ndow you're goigg to gedt sicgk too," Shiro says rubbing at his pink nose with a tissue. Keith rolls his eyes and pushes Shiro gently out the door. 

While Shiro was taking his test, Keith convinced Hunk to make some chicken soup. He also went out to the store to get some stronger cold medicine and soft tissues. He makes it back half an hour before Shiro is due home. He finds Shiro's humidifier, the one he kept mostly for allergy season. Keith added a drop of menthol to it and set it running in hope that it will ease Shiro's breathing. Shiro comes in just as the tea kettle is whistling. He drops his back and sits heavily on his bed head hanging.   
"How was your test?" Keith asks coming over with the still brewing tea. He rubs Shiro's shoulders, he could feel the stress build up from the past week.   
"I thingk it wednt ogkay. I'mb just tired," he says massaging his forehead with his fingers. Keith nods and sets the tea down, going to warm up some soup and pull a dose of cold medicine. He can hear Shiro's sniffling even in another room. The humidifier must be working. When he comes back, Shiro has several tissues tented over his nose.   
"Huh'KZZt'ShIEw....Hih'dZZtSh.....Huh'DTZzzshh," he blows his nose and coughs. Keith sets down the soup and medicine in front of him.   
"Bless you. Hunk made you some soup, and I've got medicine. Don't worry, I'll get you back up and kicking ass in no time," Keith assures him. Shiro offers him a tired smile, running his hand through his hair.   
"Thangks, Keith," he says.


	7. Allergic Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith in a diplomatic meeting trying to be professional and stuff but something is irritating his nose and making him sneeze

Keith stood to the left and slightly behind where Shiro was sitting. They were in a meeting with a flower based life form whose planet had resources the Voltron Coalition could use. Shiro was giving them his usual speech about their duty to the universe and how much they would be helping. Keith had stopped listening after a few minutes, about the time his nose started burning. The plant based life forms had trendles that flowed elegantly behind them. They were beautiful, they were also used to transmit pollen from one to another. The longer they stayed in the conference room, the more filled with pollen they became. It had gotten to the point that there was a golden haze in the air. The haze is Keith's greatest enemy at the moment. His eyes were burning and itching and he was sure any moment now, they were going to flood with tears. Each breath makes his sinuses itch and burn with the need to sneeze. So far, he was holding it off with relative success.   
"Hdt...huh"  
his breath hitches and he has to scrub his nose. The rough fabric of his gloves helping to crush the feeling. Shiro moved on to another topic and it apparently pleased the leader of the Cryantians because she started to produce more pollen.   
Keith watched through watery eyes as her trendles began to twitch excitedly, putting out more of the yellow haze that was killing Keith. His nose was starting to run at this point, and the only thing saving his dignity was his gloved hand in front of his face. That's when Shiro turned to him.   
"Keith, why don't you tell our guests about our last Voltron mission." Keith wasn't sure he'd be able to get any words out, but Shiro was looking at him so expectantly that he knew he hand to try.   
"ndt...uhmb...we..huh...we went ihhh... indto heh' hih'DNXt...GNxT...uhmb... excuse huh mbe...huh...NGhXT....umb...whhh-we made idt indto the gKnXT....KSH'IEW...DNT'chiew...KXTCH'iew...sorry," Keith says as he rushes out of the room with his hands still over his face. His gloves were damp and he wasn't sure if it was from tears or sneezes. He was still gasping for breath when he stops and leans against the wall as the sneezes take him over again, the burning too much to hold off again.   
"KSH'UU...TSH'SHIEW KSH'iew...GNXT'shuu...HCK'SHIEW...HUH'HSHHH'IEW...KSH'iew," he feels a hand on his shoulder and something soft was pressed against his face. He takes it desperately and blows his nose. That gets the fit to die down, for the moment.   
"Bless you. Are you okay?" Shiro asks, hand still on Keith's shoulder. He looks so concerned and Keith realizes he must have left the meeting.   
"Ksh'uu...tsh'SHIEW..umb yeah, jusdt the..." he waves his hands around to encompass the air. Shiro nods.   
"It's okay, I'll call one of the others you can go shower and get some antihistamines," Shiro says. Keith shakes his head.   
"Ndo, I cand do itd," he says sniffling. Then his nose starts burning again, the swollen tissues angry at the air around them.   
"Ksh'uu...tsh'uu...hih'tGnX."   
"Bless you. Now go take a shower. I'll call Hunk, don't worry about it," he says, walking off to head back into the meeting. Keith watches his retreating back before going in the other direction, a couple of sneezes marking his retreat.


	8. Keith can't catch a break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith gets a cold that turns into a nasty sinus infection. Lance and Shiro warned him to take care of himself. Ft broganes

Keith and Shiro and Lance were in the library working on homework. The two premed students were preparing for a test while Keith was working on a calculus problem. The problem wasn't overly complicated but most of Keith's attention was on not sneezing. He had woken up that morning with a runny nose, sore throat. After that he had been experiencing frequent sneezing fits. He didn't want to have one in the library with so many students trying to study. His nose didn't seem to care where he was, it was burning with the need to sneeze and his nostrils started to flare against the need. When Keith realizes that he's going to sneeze, he puts down his pen and pulls a crumpled bit clean tissue from his pocket and pinches it over his nose.   
"Hi'DZT...h'nGXt...h'nKgXt, excuse me," he says wiping his nose with the tissue before shoving it back in his pocket and picking his pen back up. Lance and Shiro are staring at him.   
"Bless you."  
"Salud, are you sick," Lance asks, looking like he was itching to test Keith's forehead, but is restraining himself. Shiro also looked concerned, possibly for himself. Sharing a dorm with Keith put him at risk of catching it and with the scar tissue in his sinuses, colds were hell for him. Keith wouldn't give it to him, he would make sure of that.   
"Yeah, just a cold," he mutters, trying to go back to his problem. He didn't want the attention on him. Lance seems satisfied and just gives his hand a sympathetic squeeze.   
"Don't let it get out of hand this time," Shiro says gently, knowing all too well how Keith liked to ignore things and let them get worse.   
"Yeah, whatever." They lapse back into silence, each going back to his own work. Lance would occasionally ask Shiro a question and Keith would occasionally pause to sneeze into his tissues or wipe his nose. Lance kept one hand on his the whole time until about 9 when they all decide it's time to go back to their dorms. They stand up and Lance gives Shiro a hug and kisses Keith's lips gently despite his protest.   
"You'll get sick," he says.   
"It's just a cold right? I can deal with a cold," Lance says, kissing Keith again just to prove his point. Keith smiles.   
"Get some rest and take care of that cold," Lance says when he and Keith break away. Then he looks over to Shiro.   
"Don't let him let this get out of hand." Shiro nods and gives Lance a half salute. Lance heads in the opposite direction as Keith and Shiro. Shiro throws his arm around Keith's shoulders as they start in the direction of their dorm. As soon as the library doors open, they are hit with a gust of cold November air. Keith stops short and presses his nose into his elbow when the cold irritates his cold sensitive nose.   
"Huh..hold ohh-on... nghh..Ksh'IEw...Tsh'IEw...hih'DZZt'uh, sorry," he says when they finish. He was glad Shiro had an arm around him, if he hadn't, Keith probably would have lost his balances as the sneezes made him bend forward at the waist. He pulls out his tissue, that was now well past it's most useful and wipes his nose.   
"Bless you, Keith, let's get you somewhere warm," he says as they start walking again, faster than before. The longer they were outside. The worse Keith's nose was running. Halfway to the dorm, he gives up on swiping at it and just holds his tissue to his nose. Shiro unlocks their door and ushers Keith in.   
"Go warm up, I'll make hot chocolate," Shiro says nudging Keith toward his bed. He sets their coffee maker to make hot water and pulls out a couple of packets of hot chocolate mix for them both. Keith comes back with a hoodie in the place of his normal bomber jacket. He sits on the very edge of the bed and reaches for the tissue box. He blows his nose quietly and tosses the tissue in the trash before applying some hand sanitizer. Shiro didn't need to get sick just because he did. Shiro comes over with two mugs, but keeps hold of Keith's even when he reaches for it because Shiro could see the sneezes building.   
"Huh...ndt'Tsh'IEw...Kzx'TzzEw...KSH'iEw, sorry," he says, face coming up from where he had hastily tucked it into his elbow. Shiro's smirking and holding out a tissue. Keith blushes and blows his nose again before grabbing the hot chocolate.   
"Bless you," Shiro says.  
"Thanks. I promise it is just a cold," Keith assures him. Shiro looks skeptical but leave him be.   
"There's medicine in the bathroom, I think it's Hunk's," Shiro says. Hunk and Matt were Keith and Shiro's suitmates. Keith nods and sets aside the half empty cup.   
"Night, Shiro," he says laying down and curling onto his side. He starts snoring shortly. Shiro had a feeling this wasn't going to be just a cold for very long. 

It was a couple of days later when Keith goes to meet Lance for their date. Keith was already sitting at the table with a cup of what Lance assumes is coffee and a bunched up tissue in his hand. Clearly his cold wasn't any better. He pulls out the seat and sits down, pausing to look closely at Keith. He didn't look good. He was always pale, but this was a whole new level for him, and based on the bags around his eyes, he hadn't been sleeping well. His nose was pink and chapped. He just looked miserable.   
"Hey, still not feeling good," Lance asks, putting a hand on top of Keith's. Now that he was closer, he could see the tea bag tag hanging out of his cup.   
"It's finde, jusdt a cold," Keith says, voice hoarse and congested. Just by those few words, Lance could tell his throat hurt. Keith sighs and fumbles for a tissue before bringing up to his nose and pinching it shut.   
"Hd'NXT...dt'GDzT...Hi'DZT, sorry," he says, voice more congested than before. Lance could only imagine how much it must have hurt to hold them in, and based on Keith's face, he was right.   
"Bless you. That doesn't sound like a cold anymore," Lance says, reaching up to touch Keith's forehead. Keith intercepts his hand with his own and brings it back down to the table where he covers it with his own.   
"Itd's jusdt a cold," he says again. Lance was almost certain it wasn't, but he didn't know how to get Keith to admit it.   
"Hkw are your classes goig," Keith asks, clearly wanting the attention off of him.   
"They're difficult. In fact, could we maybe go back to my dorm so I can study?" He asks, a plan coming together in his head. Keith shrugs.   
"Sure," he says waving a waitress over and paying his tab before getting up. He takes Lance's hand once they're up. Lance opens the door and as soon as they were out, keith froze.   
"Hih'dZZtSh Huh'DTZzzshh...Hih'dZZtSh, sorry," he says sniffling. Lance winced at the sound.   
"Bless you, come on, let's get inside. It's cold out here," he says, leading Keith back to his dorm. Keith wasn't moving nearly as fast as normal. When they get to the dorm, Lance hurries to get Keith in and onto the couch where he piles a bunch of blankets.   
"Landce, I'mb okgay," he says as Lance starts to cover him with blankets. Lance just shakes his head.   
"This isn't a cold," he says but Keith cuts him off before he can continue.   
"Huh'KZZt'ShIEw....TSh'IEww...KSH'HIEw, excubse mbe," he says wincing as he presses the tissues to his nose.   
"Bless you. I think you might have a sinus infection, and," he takes the opportunity to test Keith's fever with a kiss to the forehead and a hand on the back of his neck. "You definitely have a fever." Keith's face fell. It was just a cold. Two days ago it was just a cold.   
"I told you not to let it get this bad again," Lance says with a sigh. Keith looks up at him, heartbroken.   
"I'mb sorry, I didn't meanb to," he says voice cracking. Lance back tracks and sits down beside Keith, pulling Keith's head to his chest.   
"Shh...shhh it's okay. I'm not mad. I love you. I'll make sure you feel better," he says. Keith starts trying to pull away, but Lance holds him tight.   
"Huh'DTZzzshh...Hih'dZZtSh huh'KZZt'ShIEw.....I'mb so sorry," he says as Lance hands him a couple of tissues. He wipes his nose with them, but doesn't blow.   
"Bless you, go ahead and blow your nose, it'll help," Lance says gently.  
"Dodn't wandt to, it's godda hurdt," he says. Lance frowns that really sounded like a sinuses infection, and that would need antibiotics.   
"Do it anyways, if you do, I'll get you some hot chocolate," he bribes. Keith brings the tissue to his nose and tries to blow. Lance winces. It didn't sound helpful. Keith whimpers. Lance kisses his head and takes the tissues.   
"Good job, I'll get you that hot chocolate," he says getting up and throwing the tissues away before setting his coffee maker to make hot chocolate before going to get his nyquil severe for Keith. He was glad it had a fever reducers and a decongestant so Keith only had to take one type or medicine. He grabs a thermometer and heads back to Keith.   
When Lance comes back, Keith is in the middle of trying to sneeze.   
"Huh'GXTK'shu KZZxT'shIEw...huh'DTZZ'sHU," he sniffles miserably and tries to blow his nose again, this time with more success.   
"Bless you, here, put this under your tongue, I need a number," he says. Keith opens his mouth and let's Lance put the thermometer under his tongue. They wait the minute till it beeps, Keith sniffling the entire time. Lance takes the thermometer out and Keith brings his hands up to his face.   
"Huh'DTZzzshh...Hih'dZZtSh huh'KZZt'ShIEw. I made it till the thermometer beeped," Keith says, proud of himself. Lance smiles at him and pulls Keith's head against his belly, pressing a kiss to his hair while looking at the thermometer. 102.5. Not scary, but high enough to make Keith miserable and drive home the point that it wasn't just a cold.   
"Come on, take this, and then you can drink your cocoa," Lance says, handing Keith two blue pills. Keith takes them with a wince as they pass through his swollen throat. He coughs a little and reaches for the cocoa. Lance smiles and hands him the mug before sitting down beside him again. Keith pretty much glued himself to Lance's side. It had surprised him the first time Keith had gotten sick. Lance was expecting a fight, and he definitely got that, until Keith was ready to admit he needed help, then the moody man became a clingy octopus, refusing to let Lance go for more than five minutes at a time, leading to Lance catching his cold and a lot of guilt on Keith's part. By the time Keith finished his drink, his eyes were already drooping, the medicine working it's magic.   
"Go on and sleep, I'll be here when you wake up," Lance says, running his hands through Keith's hair.


	9. Keith fights with a cold, gets his butt kicked, shiro is disappointed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith decides a cold is no reason to miss training or a battle. He gets hurt. Shiro is disappointed. Flash back to the Garrison days.

Keith watches the training bot through watery eyes. He sees it gearing up for attack, knows where it's going to strike, knows how to move to get away, but can't get his tired body to cooperate. He takes the hit to his chest and it has him hunched over coughing until someone calls for the simulation to pause. He feels a hand on his shoulder and someone is telling him to t sass me deep breath.   
"Hey man, are you okay?" Lance asks. Keith didn't know when he came in or how much he had seen.   
"Yeah, uh fine, just got the breath knocked out of me," Keith says. He rubs his nose against his wrist and sniffles. Lance doesn't look convinced.   
"That didn't sound good, should I get Shiro?" He asks.  
"No. Don't get Shiro," Keith says. Lance looks concerned. He feels the burning in his sinuses and groans, rubbing at his nose fiercely in hope of stopping the sneeze before he rears its ugly head, but it wasn't working.   
"HuhGKXt...huh...he'ehGXST'ush" Keith groans as the sneezes tear up his already sore throat bringing tears to his eyes. Lance winces in sympathy. He knew that had to have hurt.   
"Bless you. If you don't want me to tell Shiro, you at least have to go get some rest." Keith scoffs, but it turns into a nasty coughing fit.   
"I can't get behind in my training," he says calling for the simulation to resume. Lance calls for it to pause.   
"You won't get behind. You train more than any of us," he insists. Before Keith even has time to answer, the alarm goes off and everyone is rushing for their lions. Red radiated concern and Kieth just presses good thoughts back to her. He can tell she isn't buying it, but they don't have time. Shiro is already calling for him to hurry up. Keith shoots out of the hangar and joins the rest of the team on the offence against a small Galra fleet that were targeting the planet they were flying close by. He takes out the first ship, but his concentration is shot. He has to keep stifling sneezes every couple of minutes.   
"Bless you, are you okay?" The voice came through the headset. Then, there is a blow to the side of Red that sends them careening off in a random direction. Keith gets thrown around in the hull and has his chest knocked against something hard that made him cough. He could hear the others panicking over the mics asking if he was okay.   
"Keith. Are you hurt?" Shiro's voice is the clearest one and Keith grabs onto it.   
"Fine." Is all he can bite out before he's coughing again.   
"Keith get back to the castle," Shiro commands.   
"Shiro, I'm fine, don't worry about me. I can help," he insists.   
"I'm sure you can, but we finished. Get back to the castle," Shiro says, voice leaving no room for argument. Keith sighs, coughs, and directs Red back to the castle, but let's her fly on autopilot. When he lands and gets out of Red, the rest of the team is waiting for him in various states of concern.   
"Keith, head to the infirmary. I'll be there in a minute," Shiro says before turning to talk to the others. Keith drops his head and makes his way, slowly and painfully, to the infirmary where Coran was waiting for him with a scanner. First thing he does is scan over his chest and ribs, both bruised with several breaks in his ribs.   
When Shiro comes in, Keith is expecting a lecture. Instead Shiro takes a seat beside him and just sits silently. Leith brings a hand up to pinch his nose shut and shutters forward.   
"Hih'GKxt....huh...uh'GNxT sorry, Shiro," he says without thinking. Shiro gets up and finds a box of tissues, pulling out several and putting them in Keith's hands. Keith gives Shiro a sheepish look and blows his nose softly. That triggers another couple of sneezes before he has to blow his nose again. Shiro presses his large, warm hand under Keith's bangs and can feel the fever heat coming off of him.   
"Did you know you had a fever when I called for attack?" Shiro asks. Keith shrugs, looking embarrassed. Shiro sighs and rubs a hand over his face.   
"Keith I've seen you sick more times that I can count. You don't need to be embarrassed," Shiro says. Keith knows he was true. He remembered the first time Shiro had to play nursemaid to him.   
Keith was wheezing as he tried to finish his fifth mile on the treadmill. Five miles wasn't even a warmup, but keith was so tired and every breath hurt his chest. He coughed and tried to catch his breath. He heard the treadmill beside his hum to life. He looked over and saw Shiro smiling at him. He tried to smile back, but it came out as more of a pained grimace. If Shiro noticed Keith's pitiful state, he didn't comment. Something for which Keith was grateful.   
"How has Garrison life been treating you, Keith?" He asks as he starts warming up at a slow jog. Leith shrugs and coughs, wincing as it tears his throat.   
"Okay," he says, voice low and hoarse. Shiro cocks and eyebrow at him.   
"I guess you caught the cold that's been making it's way through campus," Shiro says. He increases his speed. Keith increases his to match.   
"No. I'm fine," he insists, breath still wheezing. Shiro didn't look convinced, but he didn't push the subject. Keith groans internally when he feels the burning at the back of his nose. He presses his face as close to his shoulder as he can.   
"Huh'GShhh....huh'Dtzz," he grimaced when he could see the spray hanging in the air between him and Shiro.   
"Sorry, Shiro," he says ducking his head down, face bright red. Especially because he could tell he wasn't done.   
"Bless you, Keith. You really should be resting. That cold is a monster," Shiro says. There's no disgust or anger in his voice, just concern. Keith didn't know how to react to that. He hears Shiro's treadmill power down and then his starts to slow down until it stops. He feels Shiro's large hand on his shoulder as he is turned around to face him. Keith curses. This was not the time to need to sneeze. He pinched his nose shut and ducked his head, hoping to avoid being seen.   
"Heh'DtX...uh'KXt...huh'NxG...GnXT....sorry Shiro," he says, scrubbing his nose roughly. Shiro squeezes his shoulder.   
"Bless you. Come one. I'm taking you back to your dorm. You need to rest, not practice." Keith starts to protest but Shiro gives him a look that tells him not to argue. The walk in silence back to the dorm, other than Keith's coughing and sneezing. Shiro unlocks the door with a push of the button and leads Keith inside. He settles him on the bunk and walks into the bathroom to get a cup of water, producing an aspirin from somewhere within Jo's uniform. He hands both to Keith who takes them without complaint. Shiro slides his hand under Keith's bangs to check for a temperature.   
"I'm gonna keep an eye on that fever, if it gets any higher I'm taking you to medical," he says settling himself in a chair near Keith's bed. Keith gives him a surprised look.   
"You don't need to stay. I'm sure you have better things to do than look after a snotty cadet. Heh..he'gXt...hih'DxT....excuse mbe," he says. Shiro finds some tissues and hands them over.   
"What are friends for?" He says. 

Keith smiles as the memory fades. It was the first time he had ever felt cared for. Keith leans agaisnt Shiro and feels the medicine start to take effect. His eyes slip closed and the last thing he remembers is sneezing.   
"Heh'tZZSh'iew....Heh'zNGt" he didnt have the energy to open his eyed again, just letting himself fall asleep.


	10. Sick Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith won't stay in bed and sleep off his cold. Shiro is patient with him. Kinda

"Shiro, Keith's out of bed again," Pidge calls from her spot on the couch. Keith gives her a betrayed look, but he gives himself away a moment later.   
"Heh'GZZTshhh...hih'TZZsghh...huh'GSHhhh" He sniffles wets and wipes his nose on his wrist as Shiro walks out of the kitchen.   
"Ew, don't wipe your nose on your arm," Pidge whines. Shiro gives Keith a look that could melt metal.   
"Keith this is the third time you've left your room. You'll never get better if you don't rest," Shiro tells him firmly before taking him by the shoulder and steering him back into his bedroom.   
"Combe ond, I'mb barely even sicgk," Keith argues. Shiro rolls his eyes and hands him the box of tissues. Keith glares but takes the box and blows his nose.   
"Keith I'm not doing this to-"   
"Hih'dZZtSh huh'GZdTShhhh, sorry."   
"Bless you -punish you," he finishes after pausing to let Keith sneeze.   
"Sure feels thad way," Keith mumbles, voice muffled by the tissues. Shiro shakes his head and moves to sit next to Keith on the bed.   
"Keith I just want you to get better, but to do that you need rest. Now get some sleep," Shiro says smoothing back Keith's hair. 

Halfway through round one of training, the team hears a poorly muffled sneeze from down the hall and exchanged exasperated expressions.   
"What are you gonna do, Shiro?" Hunk asks. Shiro was running his hands through his hair in frustration. Then Keith was in the training room, dressed out in full armor. And sneezing.   
"Hih'DTZ...hih'DtSh...sorry, let'd do thid," he says taking up a fighting stance. No one moves for several moments until Shiro is once again leading Keith by the shoulder back to his room.   
"Keith, training is not included in resting. Just lay here and go to sleep. I'm serious. Don't leave this room again," he says once again putting Keith to bed, tucking him in, and brushing back his hair. Shiro leaves the room to the sound of Keith's coughing. Shiro wasn't sure what to do with the red paladin. He seemed so set on not doing as he was told. He knew it was only a matter of time until Keith was out of bed again. 

And that time was only an hour later. Hunk found him in the control room working on something. Hunk surprises him with a warm hand on his shoulder.   
"Keith, aren't you supposed to be in bed?" Hunk asks. Keith shrugs.   
"Huh'DTZzzshh...Hih'dZZtSh eh'TZZshhiew," Keith stays bent into his elbow for another moment after the sneezes end, catching his breath. Hunk winces at the rattly sound of his breath.   
"Bless you. Come on, we're getting Shiro," Hunk says pulling him up and leading him up the stairs.   
Shiro sighs when he hears Keith's coughing before he sees either him or Hunk.   
"Keith, what did I say, come on, back to bed with you," Shiro says. This time, it's easier to get Keith into bed.   
"If you leave this bed one more time, I swear I will strap you to this bed," Shiro says. Keith looks away and sniffles.   
"Shiro, please don't leave. I don't feel good," Keith says. Shiro frowns and puts a hand on Keith's forehead.   
"You've gotta fever. No wonder you're being so stubborn. Okay. I'll stay," he says taking a seat beside keith on the bed. He hands Keith a couple of tissues when his lips curl up.   
"Huh'DTZzzshh...Hih'dZZtSh." Keith sniffles miserably and blows his nose.   
"Bless you. Now, get some rest," Shiro says, but he stays seated on the edge of the bed with his sick, stubborn paladin.


	11. Sick keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith comes back from a mission with a cold and wants to spend time with the team, not go spend three days in bed. Shiro isn't buying it.

When Keith gets out of Red, hes sweat and covered in dirt and who knows what else. Shiro is at the hangar waiting for him.   
"Welcome back. How'd it go? He asks. Keith shrugs but theres a small smile on his face that lets Shiro know it had gone as expected. Then, Keith pinches his nose and shudders forward. Shiro's brows pinch down in concern.   
"Bless you. Go get cleaned up," he says. Keith nods and heads to the showers. 

Keith hangs his head, letting the water course over his sore muscles. He couldn't seem to get warm. He had been cold the whole mission and his throat hurt in a way he knew meant he was going to come down with something. He coughs a little and it tears up his throat, but he had just gotten home, he didn't want to be sent to his room for the next three days. He wanted to hang out with his team. He feels the echoes of a sneeze bouncing around his sinuses.   
"Huh'GnXT'uh...uh," the sneeze even sounded congested and it moved the cement in his head enough to make his nose drip. He sighs, coughs and turns off the water. 

When he gets to the common room, everyone stops talking for a minute to look at him.   
"Hey, you're back."  
"You get it done?"  
"Were you hurt?"  
"Welcome home." Keith's lip curls up at his friends greetings. He goes and sits beside Shiro, being sure to hit him with his wet hair.   
"Ugh, thanks a lot," Shiro says with an eye roll. Everyone laughs and start to grill Keith on his mission. After only a couple minutes of story telling, Keith's throat feels tender and raw. He put up a hand to signal a break and pinches his nose shut, shuddering forward in a silently stifled sneeze. He coughs at the pressure the strangled sneeze creates. The others give him a brief look of surprise before blessing him. Keith takes a breath to finish his story but it cut off by Shiro before he can start.   
"Are you sick?" Shiro asks him. Keith blushes.  
"Nah, can't a man sneeze in front of you?" Keith asks sarcastically before going back to his story Shiro frowns and puts an arm around Keith's shoulder. His frown deepens when he feels suppressed shivers coming from Keith. The others laugh at something Keith says, and Keith convulses again with another stifled sneeze. Shiro squeezes Keith's shoulder and smiles at him.   
"Bless you," he says. Keith nods. It seemed like he was trying to avoid acknowledging his sneezing. Maybe he hoped if he ignored it everyone else would too. It wasn't working. The others were also looking at Keith with concern now.   
"You look tired, maybe you should get some rest," Pidge says. Keith sits up a little straighter.   
"I'm fine, no need to worry," he insists. His statement is undermined when he is once again stifling another sneeze.   
"Huh'GNXt..uh," Keith blinks to dispel the tears the sneeze had forced up. He sniffles and rubs at his nose with a fist, trying to scrub away the annoying itch.   
"Bless you. That's it, time for bed," Shiro says. He pulls Keith up off the couch and steers him toward the bedrooms as the others wish him well and tell him to get some rest. Keith blushes. When they get to his room, he expects Shiro to leave him at the door, but instead, Shiro comes in with him. Keith pinches his nose closed again. It was getting harder to stifle because if the mounting congestion in his sinuses. He couldn't hear well because of the pressure in his ears and his eyes were constantly watering.  
"Hih'GXNt" another sneeze shivers out of him, forcing him to cough. This time, the fit lasts longer and has a distinct crackly sound to it.   
"Bless you. Sounds like it hurts," Shiro says handing Keith some tissues. Keith takes them, but just leaves them balled in his fist. Shiro shakes his head.   
"Blow your nose," he says. Keith shakes his head.   
"Too congested to do anything but hurt," he says. Shiro frowns and comes behind him, placing gentle fingers over his sinuses. He seems to know exactly where to put pressure to relieve the congestion, but as the congestion looses, the need to sneeze grows.   
"Dont hold them in this time, it'll make it worse," Shiro says firmly. Keith brings the tissues up to his nose, too desperate for relief to even think about strangling his sneeze off.   
"Hih'gZZtSh'uh...hih'ggTZZ'uu" Keith blows his nose into the tissues, balling them up and throwing them in the trash. He sits on the bed in front of Shiro, leaving agaisnt him.   
"Bless you, better?" He asks. Keith nods and closes his eyes. "You can always come to me, I'll always be here to help you," Shiro says. Keith smiles. Shiro would always help him.


	12. Sick Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith was just hurt and just got off bed rest and he can finally train again so he doesn't want to rest again

Shiro unwraps Keith's left leg, looking over the stitches in his knee. They looked good, pink and without and of the far or muscle showing through. He could tell that the cut was past the point of infection risk. He pulls scissors out of the first aid kit and snips through the 13 stitches going down Keith's leg.   
"Alright, I would say it's okay for you to start some light training again. Light," he says. Keith can't keep the smile off his face. He had been laid up for the last week and a half and had gone completely stir crazy after day two. He wasn't made to lay around and do nothing.   
"Thanks, Shiro, I'll be careful," he says getting up. He couldn't wait to start training again, even if it was modified. It would still be better than nothing. 

The next morning, Keith wakes up with a sinking feeling. His throat hurt and his body ached.   
"Heh'TShEEW...Tt'SHOo..gh'SHIew" even his sneezes hurt. But he couldn't be sick. He couldn't be back on bedrest only a day after getting cleared, so Keith pushes himself out of bed and drags on his uniform before heading down to the training room, skipping breakfast all together. He gets into the room to see he's the last one there. He pants and tries to catch his breath. The other paladins look at him skeptically.   
"Over do it on that leg, Keith?" Lance asks. Keith shrugs, not sure his voice would hold up to a verbal spar with Lance. He can feel Shiro's eyes on him, but avoids eye contact so that he can't be pulled away and sent to bed.   
"Alright, line up. I wanna work on getting out of bindings," Shiro says. The younger paladins line up against the wall with their hands behind their backs. Allura, Coran, and Shiro work on tying their hands behind them. As soon as his hands are bound, Keith feels his nose start to burn and itch. He groans internally and tries to focus on getting his hands free, but it's hard when he's constantly focusing on not sneezing. He couldn't cover and he didn't want to get his friends sick. Finally realizing the sneeze was not to be stopped, he ducks his head toward his shoulder and bites back the sneeze.   
"Huh"Gxt..h'NXTh" he sniffles and scrubs his nose on his shoulder. He looks up to see Shiro watching him with a disappointed look on his face. Keith knew he wasn't at his best, but he was determined to make him proud. Keith bites his lip and starts tugging at the ropes until they come loose and fall off his wrist. His newly freed hands go straight to his nose. They pinch it shut, stifling his sneezes into little more than heavy exhales.   
"-ggxt...-hxt" When he looks up, Shiro is right in front of him holding out a tissue.  
"Bless you. Are you alright?" Shiro says. Keith nods.   
"Yeah, yeah, I'mb finde," he says. He coughs a little. Shiro raises his eyebrow and keeps looking at Keith. Then, the dreadful tickling is back. He bites his lip,not wanting to sneeze this close to Shiro.   
"Hih..hhh....hiii... " realizing he wouldn't be able to hold back much longer, keith quickly turns away from Shiro and walks a couple steps off before pinching his nose.   
"-GGNXT...-ATCCH..." he blinks back the tears budding in his eyes. He sniffles and rubs his nose into the tissue. He jumps when a hand is placed on his shoulder.   
"Bless you. Are you sure you aren't sick?" Shiro asks. This time the other paladins were with him. They all looked concerned. Keith was embarrassed that they had all seen his lapse in control.   
"Yeah. Just sombethigg in the air," he says shrugging and rubbing at his nose.   
"Okay, laps," Shiro calls. He didn't know what else to do other than continue training and hope Keith came to him before he got too sick.   
Keith was lagging by his second lap. He coughed every other step and his lungs protested to every breath he took. He kept running, even when his nose starts to prickle. He scrubs at his nose and presses at it with a fist.   
"-ATTCH...GNXT...NXXT" when he opened his eyes, the world was swimming in front of his eyes. He kept moving one fit in front of another, but he knew he wasn't as fast as he normally was. Then there was a hand on his shoulder. He looks over to see Lance.  
"Bless, man you need to tell Shiro you're sick, you look like you're going to pass out." Keith hadn't even realized that they had stopped running until Shiro was standing in front of him with a hand on his forehead.   
"Keith, you should have told me. You've got a fever," he says. Keith's eyes tear up as he thinking about being forced to stay in his room for another week. He had ignored the cold for three days. It was just a cold. He didn't need bed rest for a cold.   
"Please dod't magke mbe go to bed," he says, breath hitching. He cups his hands around his mouth and nose.   
"AtTCHiew....'SHIew...ksshHIEWw"  
"Bless you," Shiro and Lance tell him. Lance looks at him like he's insane.   
"Why would you not want to gi to bed?" Lance asks. Keith sniffles.   
"I wanna be huh...At'TCHiew with everyonde else," he says.   
"Bless you. Keith you need rest to get better," Shiro says. Keith looks down.  
"I dod't want to be alode again," he says. Shiro puts a hand on his back and hands him another tissue. Keith vaguely wonders where they're coming from.   
"You won't be alone, I'll come with you," Shiro tells him. Keith looks up hopefully.   
"Promise?" He asks. Shiro nods.   
"Yeah." Lance is nodding too.   
"And I'll come by after we get done here to keep you company," Lance adds. Keith offers him a weak smile.   
"We're a team. We take care of each other," Shiro tells him. "Now, let's get you to bed."


	13. Sick/injured Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith breaks a couple ribs in a battle and wakes up with a cold, Lance is there to take care of him.

"Hm, yes it does look rather like you bruised several of your ribs. You may have broken one or two," Coran says still looking closely at Keith's side. They had been in a dirty hand to hand fight with the Galra and Keith had taken a blow point blank to his ribs. Ebert breathing hurt.   
"Is there anything you can do for it?" He asks breathlessly. Coran shakes his head.   
"Unfortunately, the pods dont work well with internal injuries. You'll just have to wait it out. If you feel the need to cough, do not hold it in, you could puncture your lung," he tells Keith. "And try to avoid putting any pressure on your chest or stomach, that could set back your healing process." With that Coran moves on to Pidge who had a cut that was still bleeding down her temple, and she only had about an hour before Green would start panicking if she didnt prove she was okay. Keith coughs a little against his fist and get up stiffly to go to his room. 

The next morning, Keith woke up and swore. He could tell by the burning in his throat that he was catching a cold on top of his injured ribs. He didn't want to move, even breathing hurt. He nearly cried when his nose started to itch. He tried his best to fight it off, but had no luck. He pinches his nose shut.  
"Huh-nxg...-kxt...ah'tchi..uh'tkhii..'tshii," Keith groans in pain. The first couple of stifled sneezes made it feel like he was being stabbed in the ribs, but when he let them out, the pain only dulled. Keith closed his eyes and tried to think about anything except how bad he felt. He really needed to take something for the pain, but he didn't think he could move. Just then, his door whooshed open.   
"Good morning, mullet man." Keith's sense of relief fades when he realizes it's Lance they had sent to help him.   
"Ah'tchi...uh'tkhii...uh...hih'tshii" Keith sniffled and rubbed at his nose, wincing as every movement pulled at his aching chest.  
"Aw bless you, you sneeze like a kitten," Lance gushes. Keith blushes and tries to hide his face. Lance taps him on the side of the head and helps him to sit up with minimal pain.   
"Here, this is for the pain," he says and hands the other paladin two pills and a cup of water. Keith takes the pills but pushes the water back into Lance's hand and raises a hand up to cover his mouth.   
"Ah'tchii...'tchii, *sniff* sorry," Keith mumbles before taking back the water and swallowing the pills.  
"Bless you. Are you sick?" Lance asks with a frown with Keith hands the cup back to him. He has a feeling Keith would shrug if it wouldn't pull on his ribs.   
"Just a sniffle," he says. Lance winces at the state of his voice after the most recent sneezes.   
"That sucks man. No fun being sick. Super no fun being sick and hurt."   
"Could you, uh, hand me the, uh, tissues?" Keith rushes out, trying to hold back his sneeze until he has a better way to cover than just his hands. Lance realizes what's happening and presses a couple soft sheets into Keith's waiting hands.  
"Ah'tchi...'kchii...'tishu..uh...huh'tchi" Keith rubs at his nose with the tissues and groans.   
"Bless you. The pain medicine should knock you out soon. Hopefully you can sleep most of this off. I'll bring some cold medicine with me next time," Lance says, helping Keith lay back down in a semi comfortable position. He hits the lights on his way out. Right in front of the door he pauses.  
"Do you need anything else?" Keith's only answer is congested snuffling.


	14. Sick Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro isn't feeling well, but he tries to push through. His team isn't having it.

"Come on, you guys can do better than this," Shiro says over the comms. His voice was hoarse and frustrated.   
"We're doing our best, Shiro, geez," Lance says back as he maneuvers Blue into place.   
"Let's run it again," Shiro barks. He mutes his mic and pinches his nose between his fingers.   
"Huh'GnXT...huh...hih'TzGNx guh," Shiro sniffles wetly and rubs at his nose. His scar gives a painful twinge and his head throbs in time with his heart. It had been quite a while since he had felt this bad. He wanted to be in bed with a warm cloth over his painful sinuses.   
"Shiro? Are you even paying attention?" Keith asks. Shiro swears and unites his mic.   
"Sorry, repeat that please," he says.   
"I said, we aren't getting anything productive done. I think we should take a break and try again later," he says. Shiro frowns. Had they made this decision without him.   
"Well I didn't ask what you think. Run it again," he snaps before muting his mic and stifling another couple sneezes.  
"Huh'GXnT...hih...huh'kNXT" he tries to sniffle, but he's too congested and it just makes his sinuses hurt. When he looks up, everyone had taken position around him. His vision goes fuzzy for a moment and all he hears is static.   
"-ro...Shiro, come on, we're going in," Keith says with authority. The others mutter their consent and fly their lions back to the castle. Shiro growls and follows them. He keeps his mic off and pinches his nose again.   
"Hih'GsShUh...huh...hih'KnXT" when he maneuvers Black into her place in the lion's den, he's hesitant to get out. He knows he looks bad, pale and red eyed. He doesn't want the others to know that he's sick. He needs to be strong, be the leader they all need. But he's just so tired. He only closes his eyes for a minute before someone's shaking him awake.   
"Shiro, wake up, man," a voice says. Shiro groans, not wanting to be dragged from his sleep. The pain is what makes him open his eyes finally. Keith is standing over him with a worried look on his face.   
"Shiro, everyone's waiting for you," Keith says. Shiro tries to push himself up but finds himself held down by Keith's hand on his shoulder.   
"You look really sick, are you sure you're up to this?" Shiro forces a smile and finishes pushing himself up.  
"Huh'GXnT...huh..hih'NXgT, excuse mbe," Shiro says. Trying to make himself sound as normal as possible. Keith mutters something involving "hypocrite", but Shiro is already too far away to hear any more. When he makes it to the meeting, theres a collective gasp as the paladins see their leader for the first time.   
"That was bad, we all know it. We have to do better, the galaxy depends ond us," he says, keeping his voice as clear as possible. It was useless he was hoarse and stuffy and now everyone knew it. He turns away for the table last minute.   
"Huh'GxnT...huh..hih'NXxT, umb excube mbe," he says.   
"Man don't do that," Lancs says wincing at the strangled sound.   
"Hes right that sounded painful," Pidge agrees with Lance, her head hurting in sympathy.  
"There's no way that's good for you," Hunk adds. He can only imagine how gunked up Shiro's sinuses must be after that. Shiro sniffles, not that it does him any good. Keith was just watching him skeptically.   
After feeling the concern of his teammates, hs loses all will to be fine. He sinks into his seat and drops his head into his hands.   
"I'mb sorry guys, I didn’t mbean to sndap. I’m just ndot feelig well today," Shiro admits before strangling another sneeze behind his fingers. Lance slaps his hand when he drops it.   
"Don't do that man, it sounds painful." The others nod in agreement. Shiro shrugs. Keith comes up beside him and presses a hand to his cheek. Shiro winces when his knuckles touch.   
"You've got a fever and from your swollen sinuses, I'd say a sinus infection too," Keith looks down at his friend. He looked terrible. It looked like he hurt, Keith couldn't imagine how bad he had to be feeling.   
"Nod surprisdd," Shiro admits not listing his head. It took too much energy.   
"Alright, let's get you to bed, Hunk, a little help?" Hunk moves to help support Shiro's weight while Pidge goes off in search of some antibiotics. 

"Dont hide it so long next time, Shiro," Keith says. Hes looking at the thermometer with a frown.   
"Thought it'd be find," Shiro says, voice muffled by the warm compress on his sinuses.   
"102.5 is not okay. You're allowed to not be invincible," Keith shoots back. Shiro presses the back of his hand to his nose.   
"Heh'NGx...GxNT'uh."   
"Bless you, and stop holding them in like that," Keith chastises. Shiro sniffles and offers Keith a weak smile.   
"Habit."   
"Habits can be broken. Break it," Keith shoots back gently, running a hand through Shiro's hair.


	15. Sick Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is sick, Blue turns into a kitten

Shiro scrubs at his eyes and looks up front his spot on the floor. He knew for certain he hadn't started the night on his floor, but in his bed. Then the vibrations come again. They shake everything in his room and even knock a couple weapons off his desk. It felt like an earthquake, but there were not earthquakes in space, because there was no earth. He gets up and walks out of his room, stumbling into the doorway when the quakes pick up again. Pidge, Hunk, Keith, Coran, and Allura were all in various states of dress and looked about as confused as he did.   
"What's going on here?" Allura asks. The paladins look at each other and brace themselves against the wall for the next quake.   
"Its coming from down stairs," Pidge says. Shiro nods and leads the way to where they kept the lions. Getting down was much harder than anyone had expected. Every few seconds, the whole castle shook violently. When they eventually get all the way down, they're greeted by more chaos. Blue is jumping off walls and bouncing around the room, and the other lions, including Black were all crouched in various corners trying to stay out of her way. When Blue saw the paladins, she ran over, causing the entire ship to shudder under the stress of her weight, and knocks them all aside like she's looking for someone.   
"Lance, your lion needs you," Shiro yells. No one says anything or moves. "Where's Lance?" He asks.   
"He wasn't with us in the hallway," Hunk says rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess he's still asleep."   
"How can anyone sleep through all this noise. I'm pretty sure Blue is gonna break through the ships walls any second now," Keith asks, frowning. Blue takes a moments break from her rampage and stares at Shiro, begging him to understand her plight.   
"Somebody go get Lance," Shiro snaps. He hears Pidge scurry off to do as she way told. 

A couple minutes later, Pidge is back with a sleepy Lance in tow. He's still rubbing sleep out of his eyes when he stands in front of Shiro.   
"What's wrong with Blue?" He asks. It was like he didn't notice the chaos going on behind him.   
"Take a look and see for yourself," Shiro says gesturing to Lance's hyperactive lion. Lance's eyes almost bug out of his head when he sees his lion bouncing around the lion's den. He coughs and puts an arm out to steady himself.   
"Blue," he calls, voice breaking midway through. As soon as the word leaves his mouth, his lion is right in front if him, her large metal muzzle prodding him in the chest. She purrs in his mind and presses the concern she feels into his mind.   
Everyone else noticed the change in Blue as soon as she realized Lance was there.   
"Lance, are you okay? You look a little pale," Hunk says quietly from the back. Shiro takes a closer look at the younger paladin.   
Shiro presses his hand to Lance's forehead and then moves it down to cup his neck.   
"You're really warm," Shiro trails off. He thinks about how Blue had been acting and now Lance's fever. Maybe there was a link between the two.   
"I think we should get you some medicine and put you back to bed, Lance. You're excused from training until you've been fever free for 24 hours," Shiro tells him, "Pidge, Hunk can you take him to bed. I'll be there shortly to get a number on that temperature." They both nod and leave the lion's den with Lance in tow. He turns back to Blue once the others are gone.   
"Thanks for letting me know, girl. I'll take good care of him for you," Shiro says running a hand over her nose before following the rest up the steps. 

Shiro knocks on Lance's door before walking in. He carries and old oral thermometer that he hands to Lance before pulling a stool up to the side of his bed. They sit in silence until the thermometer beeps. Shiro takes it and looks at the number. 101.7 degrees farenheit. Shiro hears Lance take a sudden breath and thinks he's about to say something, but when he looks up, Shiro sees Lance burying his face into cupped hands.   
"Hih'SCHIew...ah'SchIEW...'kishSHiw...huh..'shIEW." Lance sniffles and rubs at his nose with a hand.   
"Bless you," Shiro says handing Lance the box of tissues. Lance takes the box and blows his nose. Shiro can hear the congestion in the first blow. Lance finishes and coughs slightly.   
"Take these, fever reducer and a decongestant. Try and get some more sleep, I'll be back in a little while to check on you," he says holding out a hand for the tissues. Lance clutches them to his chest.   
"No....germs," he says, and even those two words sound painful and hoarse. He coughs after and Shiro shakes his head.   
"I'll take my chances," he says and Lance hands them over, eyes already starting to close before Shiro even leaves the room.


	16. Sick Hunk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk has a cough, Yellow is terrified

"Hey, Hunk, you got the tool kit? We can go run diagnostics on Yellow if you want to," Lance says. Hunk hides his wince. Lance's voice is too loud and the room is too bright. It feels like someone is driving the screwdriver through his brain. But Hunk plasters a smile on his face.  
"Sure. Let's go," he says. 

When they get down to the lion's den, they can't find Yellow anywhere. The other lions are all there, lounging around on the floor. Hunk whistles for his lion, but she doesn't come out. Lance bumps Hunk's shoulder. He nods over to a dark corner where a small squeaking sound is originating. They move over to investigate what's making the noise. When they get closer, they both gasp. It causes Hunk to cough for a few moments with Lance thumping his back.   
"Thank, man," Hunk says. Lance bods. Everyone knew Hunk had a cold, but according to him it wasn't anything to worry about. At the sound of coughing, Yellow seemed to huddle even further into herself. Hunk could hear her whimpering in his head. She looked so small hiding back in the corner. It didn't seem quite right. She was huge and strong and powerful, she shouldn't be cowering in the corner like a kitten.   
"Hey, what's wrong girl?" Hunk asks holding out a hand to press against her nose but she jerks her head away from him.   
"I think she wants space, buddy," Lance says. Hunk nods and they both start taking steps back from Yellow with their hands where she can see them. They didn't want to upset her anymore than they already had. They took about 20 steps backward before Yellow starts to relax. She jerks her head in Hunk's direction. Lance looks over. Hunk was too busy coughing to notice Yellow's signal. Lance looks closer at his best friend. For the first time, he notices the pale tint to Hunk's normal tan skin. Then he notices the sheen of sweat that was coating most of Hunk's body and how he appeared to be shivering in the warm lion's den. Lance looks back at Yellow, wishing he could talk to her. He has a pretty good idea of what she wants from him though.   
"Hunk. Buddy you feeling okay?" He asks trying not to let any worry leak into his voice.   
"I mean, I've felt better," Hunk says with a shrug. He doesn't seem to know what to do with his own body. He felt like he was taking up too much space. He wanted to make himself smaller.   
"You're really pale, man," Lance says. Hunk looks at him.   
"Maybe I'm feeling a little worse that I was earlier," Hunk admits. Lancs nods and puts a hand to Hunk's cheek.   
"Yeah, you've got a fever, buddy. I think Yellow is worried about you," he says. Hunk looks over at his cowering lion. He feels her pressing worry into his head and knows that Lance is right.   
"I think you're right," Hunk says. He rubs his forehead again trying to dissipate the pain in his skull.  
"I think we should get you to bed. Maybe get some pain killers in you," Lance says,"and don't look at me like that, you always do this thing with your mouth when your head hurts," Lance says twisting his face into what he thinks is a semblance of what Hunk's mouth did. The look makes Hunk laugh, that turns into a painful cough.   
"Yeah, bedtime for you," Lance says. Yellow stays in her corner even after they leave, but she's secretly pleased with herself for getting Hunk the help he needed.


	17. Sick Pidge/Katie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge has a cold, and kitten sneezes, and Green shuts down.

"Hih'hkishi, grrr," Pidge scrubs at her nose roughly with a tissue and tries to focus back on her work. She had all but quarantined herself in her room after the first sneeze. She knew it would be pointless to try and hide her cold where she was sneezing every ten seconds.   
"Hih'hkishu," she bangs her hand on her desk when she once again messes up the code because of her sneezing. Someone knocks on her door.  
"Combe ind," she says, voice marred by congestion. Lance sticks his head in the door.   
"Hey, Pidgey. How ya feeling?" He asks letting himself into her room and taking a seat on her bed.   
"The sambe as huh"kishii lasdt timbe you asked," she grumbles. Lance hands her a fresh tissue.  
"Bless you, " he says and leans against the wall, looking like he's planning to stay a while. Pidge clears her throat and turns back to her work.   
"Heh'kishuu, ugh." Before Lance can Bless her again, there's another knock at her door. Shiro sticks his head in, eyebrows pulled together in the way that means he's stressed.   
"I know you're not feeling well, but you really need to come check on Green, Pidge," he says. Those words sent a chill through Pidge's body. She gets up, but immediately has to bury her nose into her tissues.   
"Hih'hkishi," she doesn't even complain this time, her mind too busy worrying about her lion to be concerned about her cold. She follows Shiro down the halls and into the lion's den. When they get down, she sees what Shiro was talking about. She pauses to aim two sneezes into her tissues before getting closer to Green. She puts the hand not holding her tissues on her lion's side, where she imagined her heart would be. There was nothing. No soft purr or worried grumble. It was like she had just checked out. Pidge frowns and tries to push her worry into Green's mind to wake her up, but she just hits a wall.   
"Hih'hkishi...hih'hkishu," she sniffles and runs her tissues under her nose. Not even that got Green's attention.   
"Bless you, Pidge," Shiro says coming up beside her and putting a hand on her arm. "I think she's worried about you, like how Blue started playing like a kitten when Lance was sick or when Red wouldn't let Keith pilot her. I think-" he pauses to let Pidge sneeze again. "-bless you, when you get better, she'll probably come back online," he assures her. Pidge nods and coughs into her tissues. Shiro gives her a sympathetic look. She hates it. She doesn't need people feeling bad for her.   
"You've had this cold for quite a while now, haven't you?" He asks running a hand through her hair. She shrugs.   
"Couple weeks I huh...hih'kshish guess. Sorry," she scrubs at her nose causing the sensitive appendage to turn a delicate shade of pink.   
"Bless you. Let's see about getting some cold medicine in you. I'm sure Coran has something somewhere, and then you're going to bed. To rest, not work," he tells her, missing up her hair, much to her displeasure. 

Shiro made good on his threat of cold medicine and rest. He and the others took shifts to make sure she wasn't working and after a few days, she was much better. After a final check in by Shiro, they decided to go let Green know that she was in fact better.   
"Hey, girl. You can wake up now. I'm all better, promise," everyone waited with bated breath, especially Pidge, but nothing happened. Green was offline. Pidge rubbed the spit under her leg that she liked, but not even that got a reaction out of her. Pidge sniffles a little and presses her hand against her nose.   
"Heh'kxtshi, sorry," she says. As soon as the word leaves her mouth, Green's eyes light up and Pidge is flooded with her love and concern. Pidge smiles and laughs, and coughs. Green presses her warm metal face against Pidge.   
"I missed you girl, don't do that again, okay?" She says. Green purrs her concent in Pidge's head. When she turns around, everyone is all smiles, glad both that Pidge got better and that Green was back.


	18. Sick Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is hiding a cold and Red is not having it. He is not getting in her with that cold.

"Well, I can't come help you guys because Red hates me. She hates me!" Keith knows that he's probably being irrational, but he feels bad and now not even his lion wants to be around him.   
"It's alright Keith, we'll be back in a minute and figure out what's wrong," he hears Shiro say. Keith tries to get into Red one more time only to hear her growl and find himself flat on his butt in front of her mouth again.   
"What is wrong with you? Why do you hate me?" He feels Red's concern for him through their link. His head hurts, and his throat, and to be honest, he kinda needs to sneeze, but he can't let himself be sick. The team needs him. More importantly though, he needs to not let them down.   
"Okay, Keith what's happening?" Shiro asks. Keith jump, he hadn't even noticed the other Paladins coming in. He looks at Shiro.  
"She keeps throwing me out," he says throwing his hands up. "She hates me. I just know it." He sniffles and rubs at his nose with his hand, but that doesn't stop the growing itch. He turns away from the others and pinches his nose shut tightly.   
"Huh-ngxt...-gxt...ngxt...huh-gxt...-ngx." When he turns back, Shiro is examining Red for any sign that something might be wrong.   
"Bless you," he says off handedly. Pidge and Hunk are both looking at Keith too closely for his comfort.   
"Hey, Keith, you don't look too good. Are you feeling okay?" Pidge asks after a few tense moments. Keith crosses his arms and goes on the defensive immediately.   
"I'm finde," he snaps, wincing at the congestion dulling his consonants. Shiro stands up and gives Keith his own look over before reaching out a hand and pressing it to Keith's forehead. He keeps it there for a moment before moving it down to his cheek and finally cupping the back of his neck with a warm palm. Keith closes his eyes at the comforting touch, but all too soon his nose ends his comfort.   
"Huh-ngxt...-gxt..."huh-ngx...-kxt..huh'kxt'uh.." Keith blushes and sniffles. He rubs his nose between his pinched fingers to try and curb the itch.   
"Bless you," the paladins chorus. Keith blushes a darker red and turns away.   
"I think I know why Red won't let you in," Shiro says, "she's trying to take care of you. She doesn't hate you, she loves you." At Shiro's words, Keith feels Red purr in his mind. He leans against her and takes comfort in her companionship for a moment.   
"I think the best course of action is to get you back to bed," Shiro says, putting a hand on Keith's shoulder and gently guiding him out of the room. The other paladins offer Keith well wishes as he passes or in Lance's case, a clap on the back that makes Keith cough.   
"You should have told me when you started feeling bad," Shiro says once they're out of earshot of the others.   
"Didn't want you to have to pick up my slack," Keith mutters before pinching his nose shut again.   
"Huh-ngxt...-gxt..."huh-ngx... -kxt'uh" he sniffles wetly.   
"Bless you. Stop holding them in like that, you'll get a sinus infection," Shiro tells him. Keith shrugs and they walk into his room. Shiro sits him on the bed and crouches in front of him.   
"We're a team, Keith. We work together and when one of us is sick, we pick up the slack. It's okay to be sick, and it's okay to need help. What's not okay is hiding it," his voice was so calm, so reassuring that Keith found himself agreeing. He reaches up to pinch his nose when the tickling returns only for Shiro to intercept him.   
"Don't. "   
"Bhhh..but germs," Keith says trying to keep his voice from hitching as he fights the sneeze.   
"A risk I'm willing to take," Shiro tells him. Keith clasps his hands around his nose and Rick's forward. He would have fallen off the bed if Shiro hadn't been holding his shoulders.   
"Huh'kish'uh...huh'TSHuh...hih'GXThng...huh'GSHIew...huh'tshIEW...excuse mbe," Keith says, face flushing red.   
"Bless you, get some rest, Keith I'll come check on you in a little bit," Shiro says smoothing back Keith's hair and walking out of the room. Maybe it's okay to need his team sometimes too.


	19. Sick Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is hiding his cold and Black has noped out

"Has anyone seen Black? I was running diagnostics on the lions and she's not there," Pidge says walking into the main room. Everyone looked at each other and shake their heads no. Shiro looks concerned.   
"She never goes off on her own. Do you think someone took her?" Lance asks.   
"I dont think so, we would have heard them on the ship, or the castle would have given us an alert," Hunk says.   
"Huh'GnXT...Huh'Nxt excuse mbe," Shirp says when everyone looks at him.   
"Bless you," Allura says, proud to have learned the proper reaction to human sneezing.   
The others were not so polite.   
"Dude, you're gonna bust an eardrum," Lance blurts.   
"It does sound pretty painful," Hunk adds more kindly. Shiro just looks uncomfortable with the attention on him. He stifles a couple coughs against his fist and that give Allura an idea.   
"Do the lions not react to how you paladins are?" She asks. The others shrug.   
"Yeah. I mean, Blue went pretty crazy when I got sick," Lance says.   
"And Yellow was terrified when I had that cough," Hunk adds slowly. It seems the paladins were starting to put it together. Then Shiro sneezes again.   
"Huh'GnXT...Huh'Nxt, excuse mbe," Shiro says again.   
"Bless you," Allura repeats. She makes eye contact with Keith and then shoots a look over at Shiro trying to communicate her suspicion. Keith gets up and presses a palm to Shiro's cheek.   
"It's okay guys, Black is fine. She's just reacting to the fact that Shiro is a huge hypocrite and didn't want us to know he was sick," Keith tells everyone as he moves his hand to the back of Shiro's neck. Shiro stifles another round of coughing against closed lips. Lance thumps him hard on the back until he can't hold them in anymore. He coughs harshly into his fist for several moments.   
"Its not good to hold them in like that," Lance explains when Shiro shoots him a withering glare.   
"Should we not put Shiro to bed so he can rest. It would be catastrophic if galra were to attack with Black missing," she says.  
"I'mb find. Black probably just wanted to stretch her legs. We normally fly a couple times a week, but I didn't have timbe to take her this week," Shiro says. He stifles a couple sneezes between pinched fingers.   
"Come on man, you've got to cut that out," Lance tells him.   
"And I know Black didn't just go stretch her legs. She ran off because you're sick. And now we don't know where she is or how long she's been gone. Although based on that fever you're rocking, I'd guess you've been sick a while, so she's probably been gone a while. Now you're going to bed so you get better and she comes back before we need you," Keith says and wraps an arm around Shiro's waist and pulls him off the couch. Shiro pauses and turns his head away from Keith.   
"Huh'KZZt'ShIEw Hih'dZZtSh, sorry," Shiro says looking at Keith sheepishly.   
"Bless you. It's fine. At least you didnt strangle them," Keith tells him. 

Keith settled Shiro into his bed with a cup of water and a couple tablets that Coran promised would help. Shiro took them without question, a testiment to how bad he must be feeling. Shiro hated to be off his game, he would rather suffer through than be foggy headed all day.   
"Huh'KZZt'ShIEw...Huh'DTZzzshh...Hih'dZZt," Shiro doesn't apologize this time, just buries his head in his pillow. Keith pats him on the back.   
"Feel better soon, Shiro," Keith says as he leaves the room, but Shiro is already asleep.


	20. Sick Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whenever Keith is sick, the thermometer goes missing.

"Why is it whenever I need to check your temperature, all the thermometers seem to disappear?" Shiro asks, looking at his obviously sick boyfriend. Keith was standing in the middle of the room, dressed to go to class with his arms crossed petulantly across his chest. His eyes were fever bright and Shiro could pick out the barely suppressed shivers coursing through his body. He was frowning with his teeth gritted. He had dark pink spots high on his cheeks. His nose and upper lipped were nearly the same shade of irritated, chapped pink. It was obvious the stubborn boy had been fighting off a cold for sometime now.   
Shiro shakes his head when Keith just gives him a victorious smile. If Shiro couldn't prove he had a fever, he couldn't force Keith to stay home. Shiro had another idea. He takes a couple steps that bring him right into Keith's personal space. He drops his head so they're forehead to forehead. He can feel the heat radiating off of Keith. He can feel the sweat budding on his temples.   
"Keith," Shiro says slowly, "you've got a fever. Why don't you just get back in bed and I'll make you some of that honeybrew, you like." Shiro knew he was edging into bribery, but he wasn't above it if it meant Keith would rest. The younger man wouldn't slow down until there was a fever. Without a fever he seemed to assume that he didn't need the rest. Keith sniffles and brings up a wrist to wipe at his nose. Shiro rolls his eyes. He steps back and pulls a pack of tissues out of his back pocket.   
Keith always wonders where all these things come from, Shiro just seems to make them appear. Keith takes the tissues and wipes his nose sheepishly. Soon enough he's pitching forward into the soft paper to muffle a couple of sneezes.  
"tch'shsh..t'cshh..tch'chsh...tsh'shhsiew," Keith snuffles a bit into the tissues before pinch wiping his nose, obviously not willing to blow.   
Shiro gave him a pleading look. Keith's shoulders sag and he let's Shiro lead him back to his bed, hand on the small of his back.   
"Heh...tsh'shh..tch'shh...ks'chch," another pinch wipe. It looks painful on his nose. Shiro moves his hand, replacing Keith's own ruthless tending with his own more gentle attentions.   
"Now, are you going to tell me where you put the thermometer so I can get a read on this fever?" He prods gently. Keith chews on his chapped lip. He mutters something under his breath.   
"Couldn't hear you," Shiro says. Keith flushes even more pink. It was adorable.   
"Empty orange juice bottle," he finally admits. Shiro laughs and shakes his head, going to retrieve the instrument.   
He comes back and Keith obediently opens his mouth and let's Shiro slip it under his tongue.   
It beeps.   
"101.7, and you wanted to go to class," Shiro chides, kissing Keith's too warm head. He heads into the kitchen to make the honeybrew he bribed Keith with. When he comes back, Keith takes the hot cup greedily and holds it close to his body to soak up the warmth. Shiro wraps an arm around his shoulders.   
"There, now it this so bad?" He asks. Keith shoots him a glare, but it's undermined by the red, runny nose and the mug clutched close to his chest.


End file.
